


Us...Me

by StrangeMischief



Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angst, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-20
Updated: 2018-07-21
Packaged: 2020-10-26 09:22:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20739923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StrangeMischief/pseuds/StrangeMischief
Summary: “I don’t believe in happily ever after.”





	1. Us...Me

**Author's Note:**

> As always, enjoy :3

_ <strike> Us </strike> …Me _

“What about us?” Tony shouts. The diamond in Pepper’s engagement ring digs painfully into his squeezing palm. “The wedding? You and me? Forever?”

“Yes, you and me!” Pepper cries back. “Pepper Potts and Tony Stark! Not Pepper Potts, Tony Stark, and Iron Man!”

“I thought-”

“So did I.”

\---

“But what about us?” Christine looks like she’s going to cry.

_God, _how he hopes she doesn’t cry.

“You moved on,” Stephen states bluntly.

“I just needed time,” she denies, her wavy chestnut hair swinging around her shoulders with the shake of her head. “I thought maybe _you _needed more time too.”

He doesn’t reply.

Her demeanor shifts. “I haven’t moved on,” Christine whispers, “but you have.”

Stephen blinks. “What?”

\---

“We saved the universe,” Tony mumbles as he drowns another scotch. “Saved the _universe _and this is our happily ever after.”

Stephen snorts into his tea. “Happily ever after? You’ve spent too much time with Peter.”

“Don’t knock the kid!”

Stephen held his hands up in surrender.

Tony propped his feet up on the coffee table and scrutinized the sorcerer across from him. “Wizards don’t believe in happily ever after?”

“_I_ don’t believe in happily ever after.”

Tony raises a single brow but otherwise doesn’t comment.

\---

Tony was on the other side of the Sanctum library, staring at the flickering holograms his Starkpad was projecting.

“Stephen.”

Every few minutes or so he would move his lips _just so _in concentration.

“Stephen.”

_Speaking of..._

Tony removed one of the shimmering projections with the sweep of his hand, his mouth pulling to the side in thought as he did so.

“_Stephen!”_

The sorcerer jerked at his name, slamming his knees into the underside of the heavy desk. “What, Wong?” he snapped.

Wong opened his mouth as if to respond before snapping it shut. His thoughtful brown eyes bore into Stephen’s blue ones with such intensity the later shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

“Always this madness,” Wong mutters cryptically before sweeping from the room.

\---

As soon as the movie cut to commercial, Peter stood from between Stephen and Tony and bolted to the kitchen, shouting, “Need more popcorn!” as he went.

Tony’s hand, which had been resting on the back of the sofa thus far, reached out and swatted at Stephen the moment Peter turned the corner. “Hey.”

Stephen tilted his head slightly and quirked a single brow.

“Wanna make out?” the brunette asks, wiggling his own brows suggestively.

The sorcerer chuckles deeply at the adolescence of the phrase as he reaches over to yank the billionaire into his lap. He barely manages to mutter, “We don’t have much time,” before Tony’s mouth is descending onto his own.

And they truly didn’t.

“I knew it!”

Tony gasps and pushes off Stephen’s body. “Peter!”

Peter stands at the room’s entrance, a bowl of popcorn between his hands while his dark eyes dart between the two men.

He was smiling. No, it was more than that. He had a _shit-eating grin _on his face.

“Wong owes me ten dollars,” he almost _sings_ merrily, plopping down where Tony had previously been sitting. “He didn’t think you two were together yet, but I knew.” Peter’s twinkling eyes cast back towards the two shocked men. “I _knew _you’d both end up happy.”

\---

“Let go,” Tony whispers lowly, his chapped lips brushing Stephen’s ear.

Stephen moans and pushes roughly against Tony’s shoulder, trying to roll them back over.

Tony _bites _his neck in retaliation.

_“Let go, Stephen,” _he hisses.

Stephen does.

And _oh, _

.

.

.

how _sinful _

.

.

.

and yet…

_._

_._

_._

_heavenly_ it is.

\---

It feels as if the Earth has disappeared from under his two feet.

“You said she left,” Stephen croaks out, clearly shocked.

Tony runs his hand through his hair and simply repeats, “She’s come back.”

“But she _left_, Tony.”

“The Iron Man stuff isn’t holding her back anymore.”

_It never held me back_, the petulant part of Stephen wants to spit.

“Pepper understands now that Iron Man and I…we’re a package deal.”

Stephen couldn’t fathom how anyone could ever think otherwise. “And what about us?” he rasps out. “It’s been short, but…surely it means _something _to you?”

Tony looks pained, and his hands fidget as if he wants to reach out to the other man. “Pep and I…I can’t explain it, Stephen.”

“And what about _me, _Tony?” Stephen whispers.

The billionaire pauses and licks his lips nervously as if building up the courage to say his next words.

“You don’t believe in happily ever after anyway.”

\---

The knock at the Sanctum door was almost obscured by the thunderous roar of the storm outside. Almost, but he had heard it.

Stephen swings the door open to reveal a high schooler in a dripping suit and tie, eyes downcast.

“Peter?”

The teen’s eyes remain on his water-logged dress shoes. “Can I come in, Mr. Strange?”

“Of course.”

Peter swept past Stephen without hesitation and disappeared around the corner into the inviting warmth of the Sanctum’s living room.

Stephen let the door swing shut with a _thud _before following the trail of a soggy jacket, tie, a pair of socks, and two squishy shoes Peter had created on his way to where he sat on the living room carpet. His knees protested as he sunk down to the floor to sit next to Peter, long legs stretching out towards the crackling fireplace.

“Why aren’t you at the wedding?” Stephen pries gently after a few moments of silence. “Doesn’t Ton-…Stark want you there?”

Peter shrugs and pulls his knees to his chest.

“I would have thought you of all people would be over the moon,” Stephen mumbles, “Happy endings and all that.”

Peter stiffens. “No,” he whispers. “I don’t believe in happily ever after.”


	2. Forget Me Not

_ Forget Me Not _

Tony frowned as he peeked through the crack in the door again.

Peter still wasn’t there.

Aunt Hottie was there, smiling and laughing with Bruce from the second row but there wasn’t a trace of Peter.

The coordinator cleared her throat from behind him. “It’s time to start.”

“No. We need Peter.”

“Peter?” she asked momentarily confused.

“My…intern.”

“The schedule is very tight, Mr. Stark,” the coordinator replied slowly as if speaking to a child. “We don’t have time for your _intern._”

“Than make it!” he snapped, pushing through the door and striding down the aisle. Just as he neared the dais, he swerved to the side to slip into Peter’s unoccupied seat.

“Hey, May,” he greeted with a tight smile. “Where’d your nephew slip off to?”

May’s happy smile faltered for a moment before she regained her composure. “He stepped outside,” she said carefully.

Too carefully.

“We’ll just hold off ten minutes then while I go wrangle him back in then?” is what Tony asks, but his real question is obvious. _Peter’s coming back in, right?_

May bites her bottom lip, and her eyes darken with Tony’s least favorite emotion. Pity.

“I think you should go ahead and start, Mr. Stark,” May whispers.

Tony knows what she really meant to say.

_No, he’s not coming back._

The billionaire nods once and takes his place on the dais.

Thunder roared causing a stir among the guests. A familiar rhythm echoed off the roof.

It had begun to rain.

\---

“I’m not the only person who lives here,” Wong barked pointedly from where he was wiping the counter.

Stephen sighed and dropped the newspaper on the kitchen table before moving to put away the freshly cleaned dinnerware.

He was in the middle of stowing away the bowls when his elbow knocked into a mug. Stephen spared it a glance before going rigid.

It was the Iron Man helmet-shaped mug. Tony’s mug. The mug that was full of coffee at all hours of the day. The mug that had sat on the kitchen table. On the library windowsill. On the nightstand on the opposite side of Stephen’s bed.

The mug was a reminder. P_roof. _Proof it had been real. That it had happened.

“I can take care of it,” Wong offered, reaching a hand out.

Stephen pulled the mug sharply to his chest. “No.”

Wong’s face scrunched in confusion. “Why not?”

Stephen’s eyes ran over the fading red paint and the chipped handle. “I don’t want to forget.”

\---

May apologizes profusely as she moves towards the front door to head to work. Almost as if she thinks Tony would somehow view her leaving him unattended in her apartment as a personal slight.

“It’s alright, really,” he smiles.

May returns the smile and fumbles with her purse. “He should be here soon! I’m actually surprised he’s not with you.”

“Really?”

“Of course,” she laughs. “He’s with you every Saturday after all.”

The door swings shut behind her.

Tony hadn’t seen Peter since before the wedding.

\---

Tony decides to wait in Peter’s room. _Not _because he wants to snoop, but because he was certain that if Peter were lying to his Aunt, it meant he was out being Spider-Man. If so, it was much more likely the teen would swing in through the window rather than come through the front door.

He spent a couple of minutes flipping through pages filled with chemical equations at Peter’s desk before his eyes wander over the rest of the desk. It’s covered in what looks like school work and textbooks except for one small corner.

On the far right of Peter’s desk was a cluster of framed photos. Peter and May. A young Peter and two people who must be his parents. Peter with another boy and a girl who looked about the same age. And-

The papers slipped from his hands and scattered across the desk.

It was the Sanctum library. Tony and Stephen were sprawled out on the frumpy loveseat while Peter dozed in the nearby armchair, _Of Mice and Men _dangling dangerously from his lax fingers. Tony was reading off his Starkpad while Stephen…Stephen had his head propped up with his arm and was staring at Tony with nothing short of pure adoration.

“Mr. Stark?”

The man spun around at the call of his name, the photo still in hand. Peter was standing in the doorway of the room rather than at the window and was wearing his regular day clothes. _Not out Spider-Maning then. _

“Peter, how’re y-”

“What’re you doing here, Mr. Stark?” Peter’s tone was not unkind, but…distant and reserved.

“I was worried,” Tony replies with a frown. “Haven’t seen you since…awhile. At least two months.”

“I’ve had homework.”

Tony’s mouth pulled down in disbelief, but he didn’t push further. “How did you get this picture?” he asked.

Peter blanched and made to grab the frame from Tony’s hands. “Wong took it. Give it back!”

“Peter, I don’t think-”

“I’m keeping it!” the teen cried out, almost pleadingly.

“Okay, okay,” Tony relented, passing over the picture. “But _why _do you want it?”

Peter glanced down at the photograph. “I don’t want to forget.”

\---

_“You are the human incarnate of Scrooge.”_

_“Wong and I _let _you in here. We could always change the wards.”_

_“Peter would let me in. Wouldn’t you, Pete?”_

_Peter, who seemed to have been distracted by his thoughts thus far perked up at his name. “Um…what was the question?” _

_Tony sighed and ran a hand down his face. “The kid and I are going to sneak down the chimney tonight and set up a tree and garland and those poisonous red flowers-”_

_“No!” Stephen growled. _

_“You’re right. The kid might eat them. No red flowers then, but the tree and garland are non-nego-” Tony broke off as familiar crackling sounds filled the air._

_The amber sparks accustomed of a portal appeared over Stephen’s head, and a sea of greenery rained down on Stephen._

_Peter started cackling so hard he fell off his chair. “We got him, Wong!”_

_Tony kicked over one of the leafy bunches and snorted. Mistletoe._

_“I’m going to stick all of you in the mirror dimension until after Christmas,” Stephen mumbled with an air of defeat. _

_Tony chuckled and pulled a small cluster of the ruby berries from Stephen’s wavy hair. “Stop pouting, Stephen.”_

_The sorcerer’s mouth moved, ready to let loose a barbed insult, but was cut off when Tony captured his lips with his own._

“What do you think about?”

Tony’s mind snapped out of the memory. Pepper’s form swarmed into view from across the couch “Sorry, what?” he asked wearily

“You always stare off and get this sappy look on your face. What do you think about?”

Tony smiled sadly. “Something I don’t want to forget.” 


End file.
